Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Weddings. Darryl Dean Wright
look familiar, but he couldn't place it. He asked, "I see it, but what does it mean, Leo?"
"It means that that ship was in your solar system, Sir," Leo said.
Austen asked him to explain. Leo pointed at the icon and said, "When our fleet picked up one of your nephew's probes, that marker was put on every ship in the fleet that was sent to conquer your planet." Austen made a mental note to take those icons off both Leo-ships he had salvaged. He wondered if ED had found out about the icon and the fact that it looked like Kirk's probes.
Austen then thought that it was justice that the ship who tried to blow up his solar system could not catch up with its people, and that one of the same nova bombs had caught their ship. It was also fitting that they would spend eternity being sucked and stretched into a black-hole like spaghetti. He knew this one had to be the ship that tried to blow up Earth's sun.
Leo patted him on the back, and they went forward passing up some Nano-droids and one Lizardian engineer until they entered the Leo-ship. They went straight for the engine room. Brion was there, but he was not supposed to be.
When Brion saw the Leonsian he freaked! He grabbed the biggest wrench he saw and threw it at the Leonsian, but Leo, with his cat-like reflexes caught it without thinking about it. Brion was screaming as Austen ordered him to stand down. Still Brion rushed at Leo in a rage. That was the last thing Austen needed.
Austen caught Brion as he tried to slip by him and put him into a choke-hold. He then ordered Leo to the bridge of the ship they were on just to get rid of him for the moment. Leo immediately did an about-face as Austen told Brion to listen up, "He is with us, Brion! He is a vegetarian. What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in a class right now, aren't you?"
Brion could barely breathe let alone speak, so he could only nod his head, yes.
Austen said, "Turtle, I need one security guard to the Leonsian ship," The Turtle responded by telling the admiral that Clark was on her way. The admiral told Brion that he had met a different man named Brion once and that he sure hoped he was nothing like him, because that would be bad for him, very bad. Austen was of course talking about the dead pirate he once ran into.
Austen let go of Brion and pushed him to the deck hard. He said, "Stay down, Son. I don't want to hurt you but I will. We have aliens aboard the Turtle. You were told. Derek and I are equal opportunity cadet-grabbers, which explains how you are here. The next time I give you an order, you had better obey it. If not, you aren't welcomed on my ship. You get me fodder?"
Brion said, "But…"
He wasn't able to finish the sentence because Austen yelled, "No buts or I will kick yours! You say 'Yes Sir or yes Admiral,' You get me cadet?"
Brion slowly arose from the deck-plate and stood at attention. He said, "Yes Sir, Admiral." Just then Commander Clark came into the engine room with her laser out. She was hoping she wouldn't have to fire it.
Austen saw her and said, "At ease, Commander, it was just a misunderstanding. She holstered the laser-gun and Brion relaxed a bit. Austen straightened out his suit and looked at Brion and asked again, "What are you doing here anyways, Cadet?" He said it nonchalantly, but he expected an answer.
Brion said, "I wanted to know everything about this ship, Sir. Its engines and capabilities so I can help my brother. He is after all alone, and I think I'm ready and old enough now."
Austen said sarcastically, "As opposed to a couple of months ago?"
Austen turned to Clark and told her to have engineering install a cloaking device onto the ship. She saluted him. He then turned to Brion and said, "Well you are in luck, young man. We just happen to have an expert on the matter. His name is Leo and he is Derek's and my friend. He is appalled at what his people do, and he is the main reason why we are helping your people. We wouldn't know anything about your people or where you are from if it weren't for him. He left everything he knew for a chance for something better just like you did. And that is here on the Turtle where we don't have politics of 'skin,' so you will treat him with respect, or I'll have this very pretty marine throw you out an air-lock. What's it going to be, Cadet?"
Brion said with a tear in his eye, "I'd like the Leonsian to help me learn this ship, Admiral."
Austen smiled and said, "Well alrighty then." He looked at Clark and said, "Stay with him and keep an eye on him in case he changes his mind, and if he does change his mind, throw him out an airlock."
As he was leaving to go to the bridge to tell Leo he could go back to the engineering room, Clark said, "Yes Sir … And I think you are pretty too, Admiral." He didn't know what to say to that remark so he just left.
Chapter 12
BETRAYAL
Derek ordered the Turtle once again to send out all of the large Turtle ships to go and gather as many Tauri people as they could find. "We beat the Leonsians here, but they're not that far behind us. Have all the ships manned with droids with my brother and me to represent us and explain why we are here as we pick up our passengers."
After the Turtle gave its affirmative, it took thirty minutes to unload thousands of her largest children to spread out on Tauri. Derek asked Noah if he could see Daque's ship anywhere, but Noah said no. Derek then asked the Turtle the same question, and it said that it was cloaked and orbiting their lunar satellite about four million miles away. Derek knew the ship would know. There was not much the ship could not do, and only he and Austen were aware of all of its capabilities.
Derek told Kim to get hold of him, and when Daque appeared on the screen he said, "Well hello stranger. We're back for another load of refugees. We passed the Leo-fleet on our way here, so we won't spend as much time here as we did last time. They'll be here in a day maybe."
Daque said, "Yes they will, because a farm-freighter landed on my planet to gather up more of my people and we killed them all. By now they'll be late getting back or checking in."
Derek said, "Good to know. Where is this freighter? We will go and pick it up and put our flag on it. Your brother became part of our crew, so he is still with us, and don't worry, we'll keep him safe. Do you want to see him?"
Daque said, "That would be great. We are coming to you now, and I'll give you the coordinates of the freighter when I arrive." The captain became slightly unnerved at his response because Daque ignored his order to give the co-ordinates.
Derek took Kirk and went to the Q-bay. When they arrived, they entered the Leonsian ship as the Turtle was launching the last ship to go fishing on the planet. Derek thought it was really weird that the Q-bay looked a little empty. They entered the engine room where Brion and Leo were with quite a few Nano-droids hard at work on the Leonsian ship. As they passed Clark, Derek winked at her, and she blushed as Kirk rolled his eyes.
Derek asked Leo how it was going because he might need the ship soon. Leo just grunted as Brion helped him remove a piece of the jump engine. Derek walked over to the Nano-droid that looked like Carter and asked if the ship was going to be ready soon, but N-Carter just laughed at him. Derek said, "You know that I don't have patience for this, and I'm armed."
N-Carter said, "Patients are for doctors; mechanics just do breakdowns, Sir. It's going to take a week at this rate to have this ship space worthy. The black-hole killed all this." He spread his arms and circled them emphasizing the entire engine room.
Derek said, "So, two hours then? Carry on." He told Brion, "I believe your brother is arriving in the Q-bay right now if you want to go and see him, Cadet. But make no mistake, if he or any Tauri take arms against my friend Leo there …" Leo looked up at Derek from where he was knelt down, and then to his side at Brion. Derek finished his statement,"… we will put them down. Got it?" Brion put his hand up on Leo's shoulder and told Derek that he would explain it to his brother.
Derek nodded and went over to talk to Clark while Kirk went to talk with Leo and Brion. She was up against the bulkhead as Derek slowly whispered in her ear, "You look… Delicious." She let out a moan. They both had their hands at their sides, but Derek had his lips against her ear. As he started whispering again she